The Only-Live-Once Society | Book 2

Chapter Nine

The next morning, I don't hear the alarm, or the shuffling of feet as three teachers, Elijah and Grace slide into the room. I wake to Vince shaking my shoulder and softly saying my name.

I look around, bleary eyed. Mr. Goldsmith who is Mrs. Gateshead's replacement, Stanley, Miss. Dumont, Elijah and Grace are stood around my bed looking at me.

I had a dream that Daniel took Elijah and tortured him until I drew up the plans for the bioweapon. Once it was done, Daniel killed Elijah. My cheeks are wet from the tears, Vince hands me a tissue and I quickly wipe at my face.

They all wait for me to speak, but instead I groan. My body is so sore it hurts to sit up, even breathing is a task. Vince helps me move into a sitting position and Elijah frowns at the contact.

The clock reads seven, this is eerily similar to when Gateshead and Stanley ambushed my hospital room last year, after my mum was shot dead.

"Do you need anything?" Vince asks. "Some water?"

"Actually," I announce, a little guilty. "I really have to pee."

Grace laughs but no one else reacts. I grunt as I swing my legs over the side of the bed. I'm in my disney pyjamas but I don't care.

I hobble into the bathroom and stagger onto the toilet. When I'm done I look in the mirror at myself. My face is bruised and swollen, my eyes are even worse from crying.

I lift my top up and look at myself in the mirror. My torso is a patchy mess of purple and blue. I lower the top and lean over the sink, filling it with water, then I splash some onto my face and pat my hair down.

The girl in the reflection of the mirror blinks at me. She has medium-length dark brown hair, and her face is the same shape as mine. But she has a black eye, bruised face and lip with a cut. Still, the girl moves when I do and she looks better than the one Elijah found after Daniel had me.

By the time I make it back, everyone except for Mr. Goldsmith, has pulled up a seat. Vince hands me a croissant as I climb into the bed, he gives me a weird look, but I don't have time to work out what it means.

"Amelia," Mr. Goldsmith starts. "What happened yesterday was a serious breach of security. If you can tell me anything about the man that accosted you, where you were and what happened, that would be a great help."

I take a deep breath and then I recount everything I remember, from the exact time he attacked, to the colour of the attackers shoes. I leave no detail out. The room is still as trained ears listen to my story, piecing together things I might not have seen.

Once I'm finished, Mr. Goldsmith nods at me and says, "thank you. That was certainly detailed." No one says anything so he continues. "Things are going to get a lot tighter around here. We can not allow men to be able to attack on our grounds. This is the first time in the school's history something like this has happened. We have to tighten up."

"Well," Vince says. "It's not the first time something like this has happened. Daniel did kidnap her from the very walls of the school."

Mr. Goldsmith's grey eyes look at Vince. He's not young or old, not striking or pretty. There is nothing noticeable about this man what-so-ever. He is completely average and unassuming. I imagine that makes him the most dangerous out of all of us. "I wasn't Headmaster then. Something like this will not be happening on my watch again."

It's as ominous as it sounds and somehow I know that even if I were to ask what he means, what he plans to do to tighten security, he wouldn't tell us.

"Did get you everything, Katherine?" Mr. Goldsmith asks Miss. Dumont who is holding a notepad and pen.

"Yes. I did. That was great detail, Amelia." Then Miss. Dumont looks at Stanley and says, "shall we?"

"Yes." Stan replies, standing. Miss. Dumont and Mr. Goldsmith file out of the room, Stan turns to follow. As he reaches the door he turns to us. "You all did well yesterday. I'm proud of you. But it should never of happened. This is somewhere you're supposed to feel safe, and we're going to make sure you do." He looks at me. "All of you."

Then he's gone with the other two teachers and it's just Grace, Elijah, Vince and I.

"I'd like to shower," Vince announces, stretching. He looks at Elijah and nods towards me. "You got her?"

"Yeah." Elijah grunts, barely looking at Vince. His eyes are only for me.

The way he's looking at me feels as though a bomb could go off right there and he wouldn't flinch. Sometimes I think I can read Elijah as though I'm reading a book. This isn't one of those days. We look at each other, not saying a word.

"I'm... uh, gonna grab breakfast." Grace says, heading towards the door with Vince.

We're alone. Elijah sits on the bed, his brow furrowing. He touches the corner of my bruised eye with his fingertips, I lean into the touch and he sighs. "You should have let me meet you, this might not have happened if I was there."

"I don't think we would have been able to stop him without Vince."

"No." Elijah murmurs, allowing his hand to drop to his side. "I don't believe so either."

"Are you okay?" I ask him.

"No." He says honestly. "Should I be?"

"No." I respond. "I don't think any of us should be."

"I felt powerless watching him attack you. He threw you around like a ragdoll."

I shrug. "He was three times the size of us and trained. We had no chance."

Elijah's voice is angry as he says, "We're almost eighteen. If we want to, we can be in the field in a few months. He shouldn't have been so hard to beat."

I reach out my arm and cup Elijah's face, ignoring the pain that shoots through me with the movement. "It is not a bad thing to need a team. We did beat him. I got away. We all got away."

Elijah looks away from me, causing my hand to fall. "I keep thinking what would have happened if we hadn't of got there when we did, if we hadn't of heard the shout when we did... would you be gone again?"

Forcefully, I say, "But you did get there, so it doesn't matter. Wait - what do you mean we? Were you and Vince hanging out? Like, together?"

Elijah looks at me sharply. "No. We were fighting in the combat barn. Training, if you want to call it that. We decided it was a good way to get our frustrations out on one another without getting in trouble. Or finding shoes in toilets-"

"Or drawing on each other with permanent ink."

"-I could kick the shit out of him and call it training."

I give him a small smile. "That's pretty smart."

"It was the most amicable thing we could think of."

"Sounds like a very adult thing to do."

He levels his eyes with mine. "I'm trying. I'm really trying, Amelia. But I hate it when he touches you or looks at you. I hate it when he's near you. I know it's stupid. I know it's childish and weird and possessive. He was there when I couldn't be. He always seems to be there when I can't be and it pisses me off."

"I'm sorry." I say, because even though it's not my fault. Even though I didn't ask for any of this, it feels like it's very much my fault.

"It's not you." He says. "You haven't done anything and I can't begrudge him for having feelings for you, or protecting you. I should be thanking him. But I can't because I hate him. I hate the way he looks at you and sometimes... I hate the way you look at him."

I reel, "Elijah I don't-"

"I know you don't." He cuts me off. "I know you don't have feelings for him like that, not now anyway. But there is a bond there. Even if you can't remember what happened, you're bonded to him, and that's something I have to live with. He was there when I couldn't be and now he's a permanent fixture in our life."

I don't say anything, because it's not the first time Elijah has been right. It won't be the last. Even if I don't want to admit it, there is an element to mine and Vince's relationship that I like. For all the love I have for Elijah, I can't deny that something bonds Vince and I.